Pharmaceutical products are often delivered or transferred through the use of an injection system, such as a reusable syringe system. Instead of being provided directly in the injection system, however, many pharmaceutical products in the market today are provided in a cartridge assembly that can be loaded into the injection system. Once loaded, a medical professional can activate the cartridge assembly and deliver the pharmaceutical product to the patient.
These cartridge assemblies typically include an ampule containing the pharmaceutical product and a hub. The ampule is typically closed at the proximal end with a flexible piston, and closed at the distal end with a pierceable diaphragm. The distal end is also conventionally fitted with the hub.
The hub typically features a metal piercing member at its proximal end for piercing the diaphragm of the ampule during activation of the cartridge assembly in order to access the pharmaceutical product and allow for its delivery through a delivery device connected to the distal end of the hub. The delivery device can take many forms. For example, it may include a needle of known construction, thereby enabling direct or indirect delivery of a pharmaceutical product to a patient (e.g., through intravenous injection or through a septum that fluidly seals a port associated with a tube set that is, or can be, fluidly connected to a patient). Alternatively, the delivery device can be a blunt needle that is constructed to be inserted through a pre-pierced septum of a tube set. In other instances, the delivery device can be a luer fitment (male or female, locking or not-locking) configured to mate with a complementary luer fitment of another delivery device.
Examples of known injection systems for use in combination with a cartridge assembly include the CARPUJECT® and iSecure™ systems, both of which are currently owned, marketed, and sold by Hospira, Inc. (Lake Forest, Ill.), the assignee of this application and the inventions disclosed herein. Various aspects of these systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,653,698 and 7,563,253, both of which are and incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. While the systems that use metal cannulas for piercing a diaphragm associated with an ampule perform as intended, the inventors have identified an opportunity replace the metal cannula in order to achieve a more cost efficient design.